Bloomsday 2013

I did Bloomsday again this year. It was great! Well, in the end it was great. Parts of it were fantastic and other parts were less than stellar. I over did it on Aikido and yard work on Saturday. By Saturday evening my back as really aching. But I was hoping it was the kind of ache that some Ibuprofen, a hot shower, and some rest would take care of. But when I woke up at 3:00am because I rolled over and hurt myself I became worried that I wasn’t going to be able to walk Bloomsday. And that sucked because I had people counting on me. The boys were looking forward to it this year. The oldest had a friend come with. And the friend’s mother was going to walk with me. And my roommate from college was going to walk with me for the first time in 20 years. I wanted to be there. So I got up at 3:00 for more anti-inflammatory, and tried to get more rest. I wasn’t better in the morning, but I hoped that I could walk the kinks out (Wishful thinking?), so we hit McD’s for McMuffins and headed to pick up our friends. We decided there would be less walking before and after the race if we took the Bloomsday shuttle bus from the mall to downtown. The idea probably did save us some walking, but they had thousands of people riding the bus, so we had to park a fair way away and walk. We still saved walking time, but it was a little disappointing. :)

I had a goal to beat my last years time. I didn’t count on having a wonky back. And I didn’t count on having a slow walking partner. We stopped and waited for her to catch up a few times. And about halfway through the race she gave us the go ahead to just go on without her. Her son stayed with mine and we picked up the pace just a little. We did stop at each mile marker and take pictures of the boys. So with a bad back, a slower partner, and stops to take photos we only came in 15 minutes behind last years time. And that feels really good to me!

I have a strategy for next year. The last two years we have started in the Lilac group. It’s the last group of walkers before the strollers and pushed wheelchairs. It’s also the biggest group. I think next year I’ll move up a group. It will be a tad less crowded and I may not have to volley to get in front of some people. Plus I’ll be in better shape. :) It helped the kids to have a friend come along, so perhaps next year we can have a couple friends.

Today, my back is still sore. And my hips are sore. And I have blisters on my feet (which came about at the very end of the race when I stepped in a deep puddle. The sprinkler on my skin was great, the wet feet weren’t. But it was all worth it! As soon as I get my back calmed down, I’ll get back to working on a regular exercise program again. Ouch.

(For those who don’t know, this was the 37^th annual Bloomsday. A 12k (7.46 miles) road race. They allow anyone to enter and everyone gets timed. There are infants in strollers, and children walking. There are wheelchair bound participants who don’t race anything else, and there are 90 year old men and women walking. As well as elite athletes who come from all over the world to compete in mens and womens divisions and the wheelchair divisions. Bloomsdayrun.org)